These are key takeaways of a Q&A session with an audience in Valencia, Spain where Wozniak went to open the second day of Campus Party. As always, Apple’s co-founder had a lot to say about a range of topics. A short video by EFE TV that we’ve included below offers a couple of interesting snippets of Woz’s talk. Surprisingly, Wozniak thinks the iPhone 4 antenna performance is no biggie.

And while he admitted to reproducing the signal drop himself, Wozniak repeated Apple’s official line, that the media blew the problem out of proportion because Apple has seen lots of success with its mobile products:

I have not really had a problem with the antenna, and I have not heard of people. I think it’s a very tiny, tiny problem that is blown out of proportion because there are a lot of people who want to accuse Apple of a mistake only because Apple has been so good with its products, creating the products that we all love.

Wozniak is “a little saddened” over the growing rivalry between Apple and Google and thinks the search giant risks becoming “the Microsoft of the future.” He receives a symbolic salary for doing “virtually no real work” at Apple, he said. This diminishing role at Apple hasn’t affected his relationship with Steve Jobs and the two men have remained friends who “never had an argument,” Wozniak stressed.

Christian’s Opinion

In my opinion, Wozniak was giving Apple lip-service. Considering how vocal Wozniak usually is about Apple’s mistakes, his mild comment regarding Antennagate comes as a surprise. I mean, the iPhone 4 death grip is on track to become one of the biggest blunders in the history of the cellphone industry and one of Apple’s worst hiccups. What was meant to be the marvel of engineering turned into a huge fiasco.

Wozniak is an engineer inside out and one would expect a different assessment of the engineering blunder with iPhone 4’s antenna. Of course, had he done so, that might have been the last nail in the iPhone 4 coffin. Call me crazy, but I think Jobs asked Wozniak to refrain from criticizing iPhone 4 publicly.

Speak Your Mind

InfiniteRefrain

Christian:

Woz tells the tale of his first tests of the antenna issue:

The first time I tried I was able to duplicate the problem. My wife was driving me to the airport and as soon as I got a short distance from my home, and no longer on wifi, I tried it by accessing a web page (using Safari on my iPhone 4) and observing the progress bar.

As the bar started to proceed I lightly (‘lightly’) touched a couple of fingers to the trouble area and the progress bar froze. When I lifted my fingers the progress bar continued it’s rapid progress. Putting my finger[s] back down halted the progress bar again. Lifting my fingers another time allowed the web page to finish loading.

So, what would Woz do? Woz has joked before that his workaround for the iPhone’s then lack of multitasking was to simply “have two iPhones” — but in this situation, he’s recommending a different phone as the backup:

If you can afford it, carry a second Verizon phone for backup. Another option is to carry a Verizon mifi and rely on Skype on your iPhone. I have used this mifi technique to rescue my own, and others’, iPhones on occasion. If you buy a Verizon Palm Pre, you get free mifi on it so that is possible the best ‘compromise’ solution, to carry a Verizon Palm Pre along with your AT&T iPhone 4.

Perhaps Google will become the next Microsoft, but in order to do that, Google would need to first dethrone Apple.

Edge

This is the same guy that suggested, if you could afford it, carry a second cheap Verizon phone to be able to make calls while enjoying your iPhone4…

Socius

I honestly don’t see any of these ‘reception’ issues. Maybe it’s an AT&T issue? I’m with Roger’s here in Canada and I have BETTER/Faster connectivity with the iPhone 4. In my home, I get about 6800 kbps down and 4200 kbps upload speed. That is FAR BETTER than the 4300 kbps download and 600 kbps upload I get with my iPhone 3GS.

At work, I’m in a building with limited cell reception. I used to get around 1mbps tops for downloads. Right now I’m getting between 2mbps-4.5mbps. So the antenna design is actually working wonders for me…

I’m really curious as to whether the people who write these articles have actually had a problem with the phone, or are just rehashing the same old BS about the phone?

I do have the phone in a slim case. Even slimmer and smaller than the case I have on my iPhone 3GS. If I get any device that is glass on 2 sides, of course I’m getting a case for it. So I’m not touching the ‘no no’ zone. You should take care and get a case too. If you do…you’ll realize that the case design actually improves the reception on the iPhone 4 quite a bit compared to the 3GS.

JohnnyB82

Socius, are you kidding me? You have no valid argument for the iPhone 4 not having a problem if you are using the case. Using a case, or “bumper” is not a solution to a hardware problem.

I have not used ANY of my phones EVER in a case. I tried it with the 3g, and it made it bulkier and removed one of the features I liked about the phone, its looks! I laugh at people who go out and pay extra money to get a pink phone, or any other off colour only to put it in a black leather case. You are supposed to enjoy your products, and they are supposed to be durable enough for daily use. If you HAVE TO USE A COVER for a cell phone, they screwed up. Plain and simple.

What you are telling me is “This phone needs a case as it is an inferior product when compared to other like devices in the market in terms of durability and connection.” Thanks, fanboy.

PS; I had the 3G, now have the 3GS, no cases on either, no skins and no scratches or anything other than some super light ones you have to squint to see on the back.

Andy

I see no real difference between Apple and Microsoft… both are huge corporations that send a ton of work overseas to have their products built by folks who get paid next to nothing for doing so. Defend either if you want, but it will just mean you’re a fan of that company, not that they are somehow actually “better” than the other.